Vanilla Coke: Not a Joke After All?

Coke's alleged plans for a packaged vanilla coke were widely reported in the last 24 hours -- on Boing Boing and Metafilter, for instance, pointing to articles from the NY Times (free registration required) and CNN among others -- but no retractions have appeared yet. Is it true? It looks like it might be. The Mercury News has mentioned it today.

I think this could be a good thing if they get the recipe right. I'm partial to a good soda fountain-style vanilla coke when I can find one. But they really screwed up the lemon flavoring in the lemon isotope of Diet Coke. Vaguely soapy, in my opinion.

Of course, I tried a soda fountain lemon coke once and it was absolutely repulsive. I think--I hope--that they simply put too much lemon in it. It was vile. The lemon Diet Coke is not nearly so nasty, but it's not as good as regular Diet Coke, and it's not as good as Diet Coke with real lemon in it.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that if you make a Cuba Libré (rum and coke) with Captain Morgan brand spiced rum, it tastes almost exactly like cream soda?